Chapter Text
“Thank you. Your order will come up right over there.” Pointing down towards the other end of the counter Hajime Hinata pushed the register closed, finishing out another transaction. The mall Starbucks that he worked at, while not quite as crowded as the ones located closer to office buildings and the general downtown area probably were around this time of day, still tended to get pretty busy during the lunch rush. He was finally getting a break in the line for the first time in the past twenty minutes, and was debating whether he had time to clock out for his own lunch break now, when he heard-
“Hajime-chan!!” Even before looking up he knew who was there based off the volume of the voice alone, and looking towards the door confirmed his suspicions. Bouncing into the store he saw the familiar multi-colored hair of one Ibuki Mioda, decked out in skeleton tights and a ripped up band t-shirt, with her Hot Topic name tag still swinging back and forth from around her neck.
“Hey, Ibuki,” Hajime replied, putting a warm (if not somewhat exhausted) smile on his face. Far more genuine than the practiced yet hollow retail smile that he wore in front of customers, at the very least. “Are you on your lunch break too?”
“That’s right! Ibuki has… Twenty-six more minutes!” she declared, stealing a quick glance at her phone. “So naturally she came over here as fast as she could!”
“Four minutes to get here is as fast as you could? Isn’t your store right around the corner?”
“Well I would’ve been faster, but I tripped over a mannequin on the way out! So then I had to stop to apologize to mannequin-chan and set him back up!”
“...Right.”
“But Ibuki’s here now! That’s all that matters!”
“You’re being loud again.” Ibuki was always being loud, of course, but it was even worse when she had just come from inside Hot Topic. Hajime blamed the fact that the store always had the music cranked up so damn loud (and the fact that the music they played there was much more aggressive than the top-40 pop music that came on over the speakers inside Starbucks).
“Eh??” Ibuki blurted back, looking genuinely shocked before leaning in closer towards Hajime, dropping her voice down lower. “Sorry! Ibuki’s using her indoor voice now!” she whispered.
“Good. That’s better.”
“Anyway!” Ibuki went on, looking back up towards the menu hanging overhead. “Can I get a-”
“You know I’m not serving you coffee, Ibuki,” Hajime interrupted, causing Ibuki to gasp sharply and clutch a hand to her chest.
“But Hajime-chan!” she protested. “How else will Ibuki get through the rest of her shift??”
“I think you’ll manage just fine,” Hajime replied, before moving over towards the bakery case. “You can have anything from in here.” Baked goods, while still potentially containing dangerous amounts of sugar, were at least free of caffeine. That would keep everyone safe from the most dangerous outcome. And, fortunately, it seemed that that promise had been enough to make Ibuki forget all about the coffee that she was being denied.
“Oh, oh! In that case, Ibuki wants… This cupcake!” she decided, pushing her finger right up against the glass.
“You know a cupcake isn’t a real lunch,” Hajime pointed out, although he was already sliding the case open from the back and reaching inside to get it all the same.
“But you said I could have anything in the case!”
“I know, I know,” he replied. Pulling the cupcake out from inside he glanced around for a moment, making sure that he wasn’t being watched, before holding it out towards Ibuki over the top of the case. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Hajime-chan is sticking it to the man!” Ibuki gasped, quickly reaching out to snatch the cupcake away. She followed that up with a conspiratorial glance around the inside of the Starbucks- one that made it that much more obvious that they were doing something illegal. “Don’t worry!” she insisted, dropping her voice down to a (still very loud) whisper once again. “Your secret is safe with me. Ibuki and Hajime-chan, partners in crime!”
“Don’t say crime like that,” Hajime replied. Rolling his eyes he walked back over towards the register, starting to tap away at the screen. “Give me two minutes to clock out on my own break and I’ll meet you outside, alright? We can go somewhere else until you have to be back.”
“You don’t wanna stay here?”
“If I have to spend any longer around the smell of coffee I think I’ll lose my mind.”
“Then we’ll break out of here! I’ll see you on the other side, Hajime-chan!” With that Ibuki gave one more look around the store, as if there would be someone who would actually try to stop her from leaving, before booking it towards the door with her ill-gotten cupcake in hand. Hajime rolled his eyes as he watched the scene unfold, although he couldn’t stop himself from smiling at it all the same. At least having a friend like Ibuki around made this job just a little bit less soul-crushing.